Credit Card vs. Debit Card - What Are The Differences

Ah, the “good old days”. If you are a baby boomer, like me, then you probably remember how important it was to rush to the bank on payday. You had to get there before the teller lanes closed so that you could have your “cash allowance” for the week. Otherwise, if you needed cash you had to write a check, then go to the bank, and “cash” the check for real cash.

Fortunately the days of the mad rush to get cash from the bank are long gone. We now enjoy the convenience of using a nearby automatic teller machine (ATM) or you can even get “cash back” at your local grocery, hardware or convenience store.

The card you use at the ATM is known as a debit card. When debit cards first appeared it was easy to tell them apart from credit cards. Debit cards didn’t have a credit card company logo on them; instead, they usually just had your bank name, your account number and your name.

Today debit cards look exactly like credit cards even carrying the same logos. Both types of cards can be swiped at the checkout counter , used to make purchases on the internet, or to pay for the fill-up at the gas pump.

When you use your debit card to make a purchase, it’s just like using cash. The account that is attached to your debit card, in most cases your checking account, is automatically debited when you use your debit card. The cost of your purchase is deducted from the funds you have in that account.

On the other hand, when you use your credit card to make a purchase you are using someone’s else’s money, specifically the issuer of the credit card, usually a banking institution.

In effect, you agree to pay them back the money you borrowed to make your purchase. In addition you will also pay interest on the money “loaned” to you at the rate which you agreed to when you applied for their credit card. This is known as the annual percentage rate (APR).

While the two cards might act and look alike, the levels of consumer protection that each type of card provides can be different.

Under federal law, if someone steals your credit card you're only responsible to pay the first $50 of unauthorized charges. However, if you notify the credit card issuer before a thief is able to make any charges you may be free from all liability. If the credit card is not physically present when an unauthorized or fraudulent purchase is made, such as over the internet, you’re also free from liability for those charges.

MasterCard and Visa offer zero-liability protection where you won’t pay any charges if someone uses your credit card to make an unauthorized purchase.

The protection offered to debit card fraud is similar but with a few exceptions. For example, your liability under federal law is limited to $50, the same as for a credit card, but only if you notify the issuer within two business days of discovering the card's loss or theft. Your liability for debit card fraud can jump up to $500 if you don’t report the loss or theft within two business days.

And if you are the type of person that gives a passing glance to your monthly bank statement, you could be totally liable for any fraudulent debit card charges if you wait 60 days or more from the time your statement is mailed.

Visa and MasterCard zero-liability protection applies to your debit card but only for transactions that do not involve the use of your PIN (personal identification number).

Additional protection against fraudulent use of your credit or debit cards may be available through your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. Check your policy or with your agent for more information about your coverage.

Also be aware that you should contact your card issuer by certified letter, return receipt requested, after you’ve contacted them by phone to protect your consumer rights.

As for which card to use for what type of purchase, most experts agree that you should use your debit card for the same type of purchases you’d make as if you were using cash. Therefore, it makes more sense to use your debit card than your credit card at the grocery store or gas station (provided you have sufficient funds to cover these purchases of course).

You should avoid using your debit card for any online purchase or for something which is expensive. Why ? The main reason is that it is much easier to dispute a charge when you use your credit card. If your gold-plated, limited edition, hip-swinging Elvis wall clock arrives broken, your credit card company will remove the charge until the problem is resolved.

With your debit card you are stuck dealing with the merchant directly to resolve any problems with a purchase, even if your banking institution could really use a gold-plated, limited edition, hip-swinging Elvis wall clock of their very own.

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Link Exchanges

Link Exchanging is the process of exchanging text links or banner links between websites. The use of link exchanges helps improve traffic, through numerous inbound links so users on other websites can click through. Exchanging links is normally a free process, which makes link exchanges cost effective. Another benefit of exchanging links is that it helps improve placement in the search engines.

Link exchanges have been used by webmasters for years as a means of direct marketing. Recently, this practice has gained more popularity among webmasters due to the fact search engines prefer websites that have many inbound links, thus improving positions in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). To the search engines, this is an accurate means of determining the importance of websites. This practice by the search engines to rank websites has helped lead to the popularity of linked-based search engines, like Google.

There are various ways to initiate a link exchange with another website. The primary way of beginning a link exchange is to email another webmaster and ask to exchange links. Another way to find websites looking to exchange links is to visit webmaster discussion boards. These websites might have link exchange forums or link exchange directories where webmasters can request link exchanges from a specific category or have open requests to allow any website to exchange a link.

With the importance of link exchanges, many types of link exchange websites have emerged as a source for webmasters. There are 2 types of link exchange directories. Paid directories make the process of exchanging links easier, but cost money and usually require software to be placed on the webmasters website to assist with the link exchange. Free link exchange directories have no cost, except they require the webmaster to manually add each website. Webmasters can have complete control over links when part of a free link exchange.

Recently some marketing companies have stated that search engines are no longer placing a heavy importance on reciprocal links. The consensus is that popularity of a website is now gauged by incoming one way links. The experts also agree that in addition to having numerous inbound links, the relevance of the linking websites is very important. Link exchanges between complimenting websites is important. Webmasters do not have to link directly with competitors, but should link with websites that have industry relevance. Having a website link with no relevance could potentially negatively affect Search Engine Result Pages.

Websites that have completed many link exchanges will usually experience increased traffic through direct clicks and search engine results. There are various ways for webmasters to find linking websites through direct email contact or link exchange directories. It is important for webmasters to check the relevancy of the links that are being adding as links that have little or no relevance might negatively affect their placement. The use of link exchanges by webmasters will continue to be an important and useful means of marketing websites and improving search engine placement.

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Easy SEO Tips You Can Use Today

Websites are only as effective as the number of visitors who see the content. If the search engines are ignoring your site, it definitely won’t get a lot of hits. Therefore, you need to try these tips for getting your site noticed by the search engines right away...

- Use Google Sitemaps to get your inner pages indexed. Many sites have a problem when it comes to getting their inner pages indexed. Luckily Google has a solution to help webmasters overcome this problem. Google Sitemaps (www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps) is an easy to use tool that allows you to tell Google about every page of your site. Although it won’t help your rankings, it may get more of your pages in the index, which could mean more traffic.

- Make sure your link anchor text is varied. Search engines penalize sites that seem to have used link exchange services. How they spot these sites is by looking at the incoming links. If the anchor text on every link is the same, then there is a good chance that software and not a human generated the links. Instead of using an automated service, take the time to submit link exchanges one at a time and make sure to vary the link text. This gives a more natural look to your incoming links.

- Use terms related to your keyword phrases in your copy. As the search engines become more sophisticated, they are better able to look at all of the content on a page and determine what it is about. What they hope to find is content that is well written for the end user – and not just for the search engines. By using synonyms and words related to your keyword phrases throughout the page, you are showing the search engines that you are writing copy that is truly useable to their searchers. As important as it is to include your keyword phrases in your copy, it’s more important to write naturally so that it makes sense to your human readers!

- Find out what your competitors are doing. Although the information does not come cheap, there are services that provide very detailed reports on your competitors including the traffic they get, what keywords generate that traffic and from which search engines. If you’re in a highly competitive market it might be worth checking out http://www.hitwise.com

- If you use keywords in your file names, don't overdo it. If your keyword phrase includes 5 words you won't be doing yourself any favors to save your homepage file as “here_are_all_my_keywords.html”. This looks like you’re trying to stuff your keywords in anywhere and everywhere! Instead choose a system for naming your files that makes it easy to tell what they are, without worrying about cramming in every keyword the page is optimized for.

The new buzzword among site developers is optimization. And with good reason. Unlike the past when only the appearance of keywords mattered, search engines now rank pages based upon many different factors. As you can see from the information presented above, you can help to get your site seen by the search engines with just a small investment of your time.

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6 Secret Traffic Strategies

Building a website is not all you need to do. Once you have a site you need to know how to drive traffic to the site. The following are 6 traffic strategies that you can apply to immediately drive targeted traffic to your website. Learn how to transform your site quickly and easily.

The key to succeeding in any internet related business is traffic. So then, how do you get visitors to flow to your site? Driving customers, clients, or readers to make your website a place that they regularly visit is really not hard to do. Driving traffic does not just happen on its own. You need to plan and execute the plan to make it happen.

1. Consider visiting other sites that are similar to yours. Visit the blog or forum of these sites and post a message with a back link to your site. A back link is simply the URL (address) or your site. Needless to say you need to put the back link in the context of a short sentence or message. If the site allows you to have a signature, then add a link to your site in your signature.

2. Create a blog with a RSS feed that notifies subscribers whenever you have updated information. Then create new content in your blog regularly. You will find that others will begin to link to you from their own pages and list you as a valuable source of information.

3. Start with Free traffic techniques and then graduate to paid traffic. Makes sense? Common sense will make you successful sooner! Traffic exchanges can quickly bring in a lot of traffic. There are plenty of good free traffic resources. Consider using Traffic Swarm. Open a free account or sign up as a pro. I started with a free account then graduated to pro. Pro will allow you to gain more points sooner and benefit from your downline.

4. SEO mean Search Engine Optimization and is one of the best things you can do for your business. SEO will help you generate targeted traffic for your website. Targeted traffic means that the people that visit your website will actually be looking for what you have to offer! Techniques like keyword density within paragraphs as well as keyword placement within the title of the webpage, Meta tags and the bolding, underline and italicizing of keywords within the webpage are a few of the SEO techniques that will impact traffic to your site. You may learn more about this at enlightenedsource.org

5. Use safe linking practices. Set up linking arrangements that appear natural. You only want to link to site related to your keywords and target market. Just having links is not what you want to do. In fact you will be penalized for just having links. It is not the number of links that matter. What matters is if the sites you link to be related to your site and that those site you link to have a rank of 3 or higher.

6. Good site content is very important. Search engines love content, and so do your visitors! Fresh content will keep your visitors coming back to your website at their own will and you’ll naturally get higher results at search engines

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BEFORE

Today before you think of saying an unkind word
Think of someone who can't speak

Before you complain about the taste of your food
Think of someone who has nothing to eat

Before you complain about your husband or wife
Think of someone who's crying out to God for a companion

Today before you complain about life
Think of someone who went too early to heaven

Before you complain about your children
Think of someone who desires children but they're barren

Before you argue about your dirty house; someone didn't clean or sweep
Think of the people who are living in the streets

Before whining about the distance you drive
Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet

And when you are tired and complain about your job
Think of the unemployed, the disabled and those who wished they had your job

But before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another
Remember that not one of us are without sin and we all answer to one maker

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down
Put a smile on your face and thank God you're alive and still around


Life is a gift
Live it...
Enjoy it...
Celebrate it...
And fulfill it.


And while you are at it give love to someone today
Love someone with what you do and the words you say
Love is not meant to be kept locked inside of us and hidden
So give it away "Give Love to someone today!"

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Lion Air Sucks

Sharing pengalaman..agar temen-temen yang baru mulai bekerja di luar negeri lebih mempersiapkan diri apalagi bila menggunakan LION AIR.

Kejadian ini terjadi sekitar awal Maret,hari Minggu tgl 2-Maret-2008

Dimulai ketika saya akan mempersiapkan diri berangkat ke singapura dengan tujuan untuk bekerja disana..yang kebetulan ada tawaran bekerja disana secara Permanen.

Singkat kata saya mendapatkan 1 tiket one way jurusan Singapura dengan no.flight JT 150 berangkat hari Minggu pukul 11.15 siang.

Guna menghindari hal2 yang tidak diinginkan (seperti macet,banjir,dll),saya dan keluaga pengantar berangkat sekitar pukul 8 pagi. Perjalanan dari Bogor berjalan lancar pagi itu, dan tiba di bandara Soekarno Hatta pemberangkatan internasional (terminal berapa,lupa deh) sekitar pukul 9.15.

Setelah pemeriksaan tiket pesawat & check tas + bagasi selesai,giliran boarding pass yang pada waktu itu belumlah terlalu ramai antriannya.
Perasaan bercampur aduk karena membayangkan akan meningalkan keluarga serta banyak hal yang lain yang membuat sedikit gelisah, apalagi ketika antrian sebelah mulai ada yang ngomel-ngomel (kebetulan juga dari Lion Air jurusan Singapura) karena mengalami permasalahan ngehang pada pada salah satu printer mereka (dan butuh waktu yang cukup lama untuk kembali berjalan normal)

Ahirnya setelah tiba giliran saya pada barisan paling depan,dengan sedikit senyuman tiket + passpor langsung dicek. Tidak lama berselang petugasnya kebetulan perempuan:
Petugas1 :Tujuannya apa
saya :Untuk bekerja
Petugas1 :ini paspornya baru ya soalnya ga ada stempel visa didalamnya
saya : iya, kan saya baru mulai kerja disana dan saya juga baru bikin passpor jadi
memang mana mungkin udh ada cap or stempelnya (masih bisa tersenyum)
Petugas1 :wah saya tidak berani memberangkatkan bapak karena passpornya masih baru.
saya : loh emangnya kenapa mbak? (mulai waswas)
Petugas1 :Tolong bapak,bicara dulu dengan atasan saya ya(sambil mempersilahkan saya pergi ke counter yang diujung.


Petugas2 : bapak mau ke singapura ya..., paspornya kok ga ada stempel visanya nih
(diulang lagi)
saya : Pak..saya ini baru dapat tawaran untuk bekerja disana,dan langsung
bikin paspor..makanya paspornya masih baru belum ada apa-apanya.
(langsung saya tunjukkan copy dokumen penunjang untuk bekerja,
surat persetujuan dari pemerintah singapura untuk working permit yang
disetujui termasuk juga fax untuk booking hotel selama seminggu.)
Petugas2 : Tapi pak,kalau mau kesana bapak harus punya tiket pulang-perginya,takutnya
nanti ada pemerikasaan dari imigrasi di sini (sambil menunjukkan letak
ruangan dan loket imigrasi),takutnya nanti bermasalah

Petugas2 :Kalo mau lolos bapak harus membayar uang tunjuk (kalo ga salah)agar bisa
berangkat ke singapura. Kalo ga percaya silahkan langsung bertanya kepada
petugas imigrasinya sendiri

(langsung bergegas ke ruangan imigrasi)
Saya :siang Pak,kalo dengan kondisi bla bla bla bla itu gimana pak..?
Petugas Imigrasi:wah mas, kalo dari kita sih asal semua documennya komplit ga ada
masalah kok tenang aja..

(balik lagi ke counter lion air)
saya : gimana mas,kok orang imigrasi bilang ga ada masalah kok?
petugas2 : barusan saya tanya atasan saya di singapura,dan dia bilang ga bisa kasih
pass buat saya untuk berangkat dengan kondisi one way tiket seperti bapak.
saya : loh,tadi katanya masalah sama imigrasi indonesia,sekarang kok beda?
Petugas2 : Takutnya nanti bapak dideportasi,itulah gunanya tiket PP (pulang pergi)
apalagi kan bapak kan ga ada bukti bekerja disana.
saya : OH BAPAK TIDAK PERCAYA DENGAN OMONGAN SAYA,JADI SAYA HARUS BELI TIKET SATU
LAGI YANG TIDAK BAKAL KEPAKE GITU? KALO SAYA TIDAK MAU BELI GIMANA?HAH
saya : saya itu udah ada sponsor Pak disana,mana mungkin dideportasi?.
Petugas2 : Maaf saya tetap tidak bisa bantu bapak,selama menggunakan one way ticket.
saya : EMANG BEGINI NIH LION AIR PERLAKUANNYA TERHADAP KONSUMEN..GA JELAS!!
tapi kenapa ya saya punya teman dengan kondisi yang sama persis tapi tetap
bisa berangkat..oh ya dia naiknya sih SINGAPORE AIRLINES...!
Petugas2 :..................................
saya : ok,gini deh..saya tantang Bapak,dengan kondisi apapun yang terjadi.Kalau
sampai harus dideportasi..saya tidak akan menuntut siapapun termasuk
Lion dan saya akan menanggung semua resikonya sendiri......Bagaimana PAk?
Petugas2 :..................................
Petugas2 :Bapak setuju bikin surat pernyataan yang isinya seperti itu
saya :Silahkan,jangan sampai saya harus ketinggalan pesawat!!!!

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